The Kyle Report

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Storm update might be most interesting part of council meeting

Tuesday’s city council meeting is, for the most part, routine and should be over in less than an hour, although this council is known for spending an extraordinarily long time in executive sessions. The most interesting item is what, following a normal weekend, would have been the most benign and that’s Item 4, the City Manager’s Report. This is a standard item that appears on every agenda and offers City Manager Scott Sellers the opportunity to update the council and the rest of the interested world "on various capital improvement projects, road projects, building program, and/or general operational activities where no action is required." Although this week this item was supposed to give Sellers an opportunity to talk about Wednesday’s 1:30 p.m. Alsco Linen groundbreaking ceremony, I’m betting Sellers will spend most of his time discussing the city’s staff response this weekend to the effects of Hurricane Harvey, especially with the news that Wednesday's groundbreaking ceremonies have been postponed, presumably because of Harvey.
Other than that, this meeting appears to be a real snoozer. The council will pass, probably 6-1 (with you-know-who dissenting), the first reading of the ordinances to approve the city’s proposed $75.5 million budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 and the corresponding $.5416 per $100 of assessed taxable valuation property tax along with the second and final reading of an ordinance relaxing the city’s sign ordinance to allow for more unusual signs. You can probably safely bet that this, too, will have at least one dissenting vote. It is interesting that the sign ordinance is the only item on the Consent Agenda and a one-item Consent Agenda is an oxymoron, but there you have it.Still depending on how long the council spends in executive session discussing a pair of economic development projects, including the athletic facilities at Kyle Vista Park (dubbed Project Just Peachy) and how many misinformed citizens show up once again to speak during the citizen comment period, this meeting should adjourn by 8 p.m.Not that it will. Just that it should.

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About Me

I have scratched together a living, in one way or another, as a writer for more than 50 years now. I was a free-lance writer during the early stages of the Vietnam War. I was the Southwest Division Overnight News Editor for United Press International back when UPI was a legitimate news gathering organization. Following that, I went to the Dallas Morning News where I became the first person to write about rock 'n' roll on a daily basis for a Texas metropolitan newspaper. I later became the News' entertainment editor. Following some stints with a couple of prominent PR firms, I had the extraordinary good fortune to team with two communications legends, Ken Fairchild and Lisa LeMaster, as part of one kick-ass media consulting/crisis communications team. That was followed by short stays with the City of Dallas, as its public information officer; the Dallas Northeast Chamber of Commerce where I had the good fortune to meet and work alongside some of this city's business and political titans; and editorial director for QuestCorp Media until that company went out of business. Now officially retired, concentrating on this blog.